I'm doing research for a new play I'm developing this week, and the director has asked us all to bring in fifteen images/sounds/short texts/short video clips/etc. that excite/provoke/inspire us about the natural world.

(The piece is about climate change and the connection of our personal life to the life of the planet--it explores a dying man's relationship with the world he's shut himself off from.)

For some reason, I feel stupid stuck on this. The things that excite me about the natural world seem to be all about our connection to it, not it itself, if that makes sense.

So I take it to you!

Does anyone have gorgeous images etc. they feel like sharing?

(What I have so far: mysterious noises in the ocean, like The Bloop (http://www.damninteresting.com/the-call-of-the-bloop), a poem, some text from The World Without Us, images of lightning storms, a bit from a Radiolab podcast about language use among animals.)

The live oaks covered in spanish moss down South. Here's a picture I took of one while I was in New Orleans last summer.Pretty much any tree talks to me but I love these, magnolia and dogwood most of all.

_________________...the momentum of the present hurtling into the future..."Are we just talking about babies generally, or eating babies in tires with guac and salsa?" ~Fizzgig

What excites me is evolution: all life on Earth is related. Not just in a "web of life" sense, but in a physical, literal way. We all come from the same place and share fundamental things with each other. There are genes in us and, say, treehoppers and bristlecone pines that carry out the same functions! I still find the incredible diversity—and commonality—of life on Earth to be breath-taking.

Digression: It's like with language. All the diversity, thousands of rich, beautiful, mutually unintelligible forms (like species, I guess). But underpinning them all is the same basic set of hardware. The differences, while great, are only the part we see. The similarities run deep. (Like our relatedness to all living things.)

Also, in keeping (sort of) with your reference to World Without Us, I've never forgotten the moment I realized that we're not the lynchpin of the planet: I was watching some nature show and there were lions stalking their prey. The lions were moving in a coordinated way, waiting for the right time, creating their opportunity. The obvious point finally was clear: they didn't need us. They were doing it on their own. It was like an axiom I had never been aware of before.

Some other weird things I love about the natural world:+ deep-sea and island gigantism+ basically everything about the deep sea, really+ this isn't exactly the natural world, but I loooooooooooooooove Prypiat and the natural reclamation process in general+ the golden ratio+ quarks (charm! strange!)+ coelacanths and other living fossils+ Lazarus taxons (Wollemi 'pines' are the coolest, especially because the whereabouts of their natural stands are undisclosed to the public)+ Cordyceps unilateralis -- this is forking TERRIFYING, but well worth a read+ absolutely everything about Madagascar, where most of flora and fauna do not exist anywhere else in the world+ tsingy+ Project Excelsior

The fact that every feeling, thought, urge, or motion I have ever imagined or completed has always been derived exclusively from some electrical activity happening in a three-pound lump of gelatinous beige stuff bouncing around inside of my skull.And, of course, the fact that everything we have ever seen or comprehended or known? Made of space dust, created as the result of some random explosion that no one will ever be able to truly comprehend or explain.

that everything in the Universe is made out of the same fundamental building blocks- the stuff that makes us us is the same stuff that distant galaxies are made of. The fact that the atoms my body is made of have been in existence since the beginning of time and have just been in countless other permutations before they were me. amazing.

On the weekend I was watching that Attenborough documentary about birds of paradise (because I watch it every time it's on, it never gets old). The one with this bird:

And it just blew my mind that these birds instinctively know how to do this elaborate dance. It's not like the birds all sit around at dance camp and learn the steps from older birds, they just know it. Makes human instinct look pretty subpar.

So yeah, instinct.

Also, the deep sea blows my mind, but in a bad way. I'm terrified of the things down there.

the sense of hugeness involved in an ocean sky, or when looking up on a clear night. on a day when i can see to the ocean on one side and to the mountains on the other, the vastness of the forest (and i live in the atlantic rain forest, which is pretty sparse compared to the "real" rain forest.)

and similarly, rivers of leafcutter ants, which live even in the cities here in Brazil and go flowing down the street like rivers. These ants have the potential to demolish an entire village in a day, but usually they keep to my collard greens, or yellow flowers (which seem to be their favorite) and lift up the little pieces they cut like sails and plunge into a torrent of little sails flowing down the city blocks. the majesty and perfection in something so tiny, it's amazing.

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:36 pmPosts: 1692Location: the land of too much wine and wind

Mountains. I never saw a real mountain until about a year and a half ago when I went to Anchorage the first time. They're so big and so beautiful and humbling. During the flight from Seattle to ANC, I stared out the window the entire time as we flew over Canada. I loved being in Anchorage and seeing mountains as we were wandering about the city. Also, flying into Seattle, and seeing Mt Rainier was pretty awesome too.

I gotta get out of the Midwest.

_________________I just brought out the carrot sticks. This is war. - paprikapapaya

Everything in science makes my head explode with happiness and wonder and awe!! The awesomeness of space makes my head explode. The incredible machinery of cells makes my head explode. The beauty of chemistry makes my head explode. Evolution makes my head explode. That's why I became a scientist and why I lead a volunteer organization that does science demos for kids. Yay science!!

It's maybe not quite what you were looking for, and it's not everyone's cup of tea, but the songs / videos at http://www.symphonyofscience.com/ give me chills. I'm going to go back in time and marry Carl Sagan.